Reporting sources of error: the Eurostat experience

European Union (EU) wide statistics are derived from national statistics produced in each Member State (MS) by a National Statistical Institute (NSI) and a set of other statistical departments, in a combination that is specific of every MS. The global set of these statistical departments builds the so-called European Statistical System (ESS). The NSIs have a co-ordinating role in each Member State- however their power varies from country to country- and the co-ordinating body of the ESS is the Statistical Programme Committee (SPC). Eurostat- as a General Directorate of the European Commission- has the exclusive right to make proposals for EU legal texts in the domain of statistics. The SPC is a consultative Committee. The legal texts are discussed and adopted jointly by the European Parliament and the European Council (a series of thematic Committees made of delegates of each MS). When legal texts are adopted, the role of Eurostat is to co-ordinate their implementation along the procedures imbedded in these texts, in general through Management Committees. Quite typically, standards are developed at the EU level, whereas data collection is organised by the Member States. The architecture of this complex "multi-dimensional" system has to be kept in mind to understand the features of the European Statistics. 2. Quality as a tool in the construction of the ES